The Power of Three - Su Ecenia, Leila Lacrosse and Jo Ellyn Rackcleff

Power Comes in Three

Dynamic Exhibition Touches Hearts, Minds, and Social Conscience

LeMoyne Center for the Visual Arts brings together three extraordinary artists to usher in a new season and celebrate the beauty, poetry, and intensity of painting. The tripartite exhibition, entitled “Power of Three,” opens September 7 as part of the capital city’s “First Friday.”

The “Power of Three” might as well be called “The Passion of Three.” The women whose work makes up this show – Su Ecenia, Leila LaCrosse, and Jo Ellyn Rackleff – are ardent devotees of the creative process that moves viewers to deeper insights and action. Each of them is a force who could easily command a one-woman show yet having the trio exhibit together presents a mosaic of strength on canvas and board.

Leila Nejad LaCrosse derives inspiration from earthly and spiritual influences. She cherishes nature, music, and verse and is deeply moved by the joy and beauty that she sees and feels. Her expertise as an accomplished pianist informs her abstract expressionism. The slashing and weeping colors on her canvas produce a concert of emotion and mystery. She wants her work to engage the imagination and evoke reflection. She contends, “Visual language serves as a means to express and to connect while striving to enliven the heart and the mind.” Leila’s work is a labor of love.

Like LaCrosse, Jo Ellyn Rackleff reveals a certain spirituality, but it is one that emanates from figural interpretation. “For me,” states Rackleff, “the human predicament is the most profound.” She concurs with painter Édouard Manet who remarked, “You would hardly believe how difficult it is to place a figure alone on a canvas, and to concentrate all the interest on this single and universal figure and still keep it living and real.” Rackleff’s solitary portraits overcome the difficulty lamented by Manet. She deftly renders women as angels, brides, and domestic workers – mystical beings expressing the magic and conundrums surrounding their predicaments. Her muted palette and descriptive line delineate pensive subjects whose stories beg to be understood. A career as literary producer for National Public Radio contributes to Rackleff’s love of the narrative.

Su Ecenia is also a visual storyteller; however, she weaves her tales in quite a different manner. Where LaCrosse and Rackleff’s work can be described as ethereal, Ecenia’s is earthly, gritty, disquieting. With bold intricate forms, Su focuses on era-defining social concerns such as plague, political ferment, climate change, and terrorism. She is a painterly advocate for human rights, carrying on the compassionate traditions of her time as a rural county home health nurse. With oil on board, Su creates provocative renditions of our world, our times. “Global matters deeply interest me and my challenge as an artist is to portray contemporary events in a style that is accessible and relatable.”